Presenter Of 1 Presentation
P0807 - Evaluating cognitive functioning in Multiple Sclerosis, compared to other neurological disorders, using an online cognitive battery (ID 1716)
Abstract
Background
Cognitive decline is a common, but poorly monitored, symptom of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). A promising approach to detect this decline is through online cognitive testing. Furthermore, cognitive decline may be similar between neurological conditions, suggesting diagnostic methods and treatments could overlap, yet how cognitive decline in MS relates to other conditions remains unknown.
Objectives
To evaluate how cognition is influenced by MS, compared to other neurological conditions, and assess the ability ofthe online cognitive battery ‘Great British Intelligence Test’ (GBIT) to measure these changes.
Methods
Data was collected from 56,829 controls, 236 patients with MS, 437 patients with Stroke, 104 patients with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and 115 patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) who completed the GBIT and an in-depth questionnaire. A principal component analysis identified four components and scores were compared between disease cohorts and controls using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Effect size (d), relative to controls, was reported for statistically significant findings (p<0.05).
Results
All neurological conditions had a lower overall cognitive score than controls (MS d = 0.31, Stroke d = 0.33, TBI d = 0.62, PD d = 0.62). In MS information processing speed (IPS) (d = 0.42) and spatial ability (d = 0.47) were the most affected domains, these were also negatively affected in other neurological conditions, while word memory and language ability were relatively spared. All disease cohorts except TBI also scored lower than controls in the emotion discrimination task (MS d = 0.24, stroke d = 0.18, PD d = 0.38); with the MS cohort scoring significantly lower than controls in six out of the 12 tasks in the GBIT.
Conclusions
In MS, cognitive decline was more domain specific compared to Stroke, TBI and PD. However, areas affected were similar between neurological disorders suggesting diagnostic methods and treatments could overlap. The current battery detected changes in cognition within MS, yet, future research is needed to optimize the battery for the MS population.